Magic's Victor Oladipo has improved his 3-point shooting this season

CHICAGO — Victor Oladipo entered the Orlando Magic's final road game of the season Monday night against the Chicago Bulls looking to stay dialed in from 3-point range.

Oladipo improved his long-range shooting during his rookie season. Before the All-Star Break, Oladipo hit 30.3 percent of his 3-point tries. Since then, he had made 38.8 percent of his 3-point tries entering Monday.

"People are going to back up on me, and they're going to let me shoot it," Oladipo said. "So I'm not going to be afraid to shoot it. I'm just going to continue to keep shooting with confidence. I can work on it; it's not like I don't work on it. The only way I can better it is if I continue to shoot it, so I'm just going to continue to shoot with confidence."

Oladipo displayed that confidence during Sunday night's 97-88 loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

Late in second quarter, he was standing on the left wing, above the 3-point arc, when he received a pass from Arron Afflalo with nine seconds remaining on the shotclock.

Oladipo did not hesitate.

Recognizing that the Nets' Deron Williams had given him space, Oladipo set his feet, squared his shoulders and elevated for the shot, just before Williams could close the distance.

The ball sailed through the hoop.

The trey was Oladipo's third 3-pointer in three attempts Sunday, and it seemed to be emblematic of Oladipo's improvement as a long-range shooter.

"He's a young man that's very determined that he's going to get what he wants," Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said. "He's going to work at doing that. He's put himself in a position in life that he's worked to get here, and I don't see that stopping. He's a guy that will take obstacles and definitely try to step over them. He's been good. He's played a lot of minutes for us and [faced] a lot of tests throughout the course of the year, and he's answered them."

One of the knocks on Oladipo when he entered the 2013 NBA Draft was his 3-point shooting, but the Magic are encouraged by his efforts to improve — he works closely with assistant coach for player development Laron Profit — and his improved stats.

Regardless of whether Oladipo continues to play point guard next season or plays off the ball more often, he and the team would benefit significantly if he can continue to improve from 3-point range. Becoming a consistently strong outside shooter would make his drive-and-kick game and his dribble-penetration game even more difficult to stop.

Fair back-to-backOn Monday night, both the Magic and the Bulls were playing on the second night of a back-to-back.

Perhaps it was merely a scheduling quirk, or a brilliant bit of work from the league office, but this back-to-back was especially fair to both teams because each of them played in New York City on Sunday night.

The Magic, of course, lost to the Nets in Brooklyn. The Bulls lost to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.

If anything, the Magic should have been a bit better rested than the Bulls. Orlando's game against Brooklyn began 90 minutes earlier than the Bulls' game against the Knicks.

Layups• The Magic turned the ball over four times in the Monday game's first 3:37.

• The Bulls began the game by surging to a 14-2 lead, but the Magic responded by cutting the lead to 17-14..

jbrobbins@tribune.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog and follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.